High-Performance Perpendicularly-Enfolded-Textile Actuators for Soft Wearable Robots: Design and Realization

Textile materials have recently been used in wearable robotics to provide more compact, lightweight, and low-cost solutions. Designing the textile-based actuator remains challenging in terms of providing a spectrum of forces that support the human body motion. We propose a new design for a textile-based actuator, which is made of an inflatable tube folded inside a housing fabric. The direction of the folds is perpendicular to the actuation plane allowing the actuator to exhibit high performance in dealing with heavy weights; it also demonstrates coherent behaviors with a broad set of its geometric parameters. We built a wearable glove that exhibits high performance in holding 9 kg weights. We show that with a larger scale, the bending actuator can hold up to 20 kg. Furthermore, a physical assistive experiment shows a reduction of 50% in electromyography signals reflecting flexor digitorum sublimis muscle activity during 9 kg weight bar grasping and releasing stages. Finally, we propose a variable curvature design, which provides a new perspective for the human-centered design of wearable robots.